New guardian
"Lightning Cage, plus, Black Static." Zain conjured the last of his spell as he and Vira were locked in the confined space.
"A double cast, with both of them being continuous spells. Quite the double edged blade to put your trust in..." Vira landed on the ground before shooting a ball of flames towards one of the lightning spears making up the cage. The portion it was connected to exploded, but quickly reformed to its original shape.
"If the spell gets damaged, it will drain your mana pool to regenerate itself. Do you have enough mana to hold this up for long while fighting me?"
As she said, Zain's eye twitched as his mana reserves dipped slightly for his cage to regenerate itself. With a heavy sigh Zain summoned two lightning spears in his hand while glaring towards VIra.
"In order to take you down, I have as much as I need!" Zain tossed the lightning bolts with incredible speed towards Vira who shot up into the air. The spell crashed into one of the numerous black spheres floating around the cage, before flying out in a random direction.
'I remember now…she was Suzaku's old vessel. No wonder I didn't recognize her before. She used to go around being called the dancing phoenix, not Vira. But none of that matters now. I couldn't have asked for a better opponent to face!' Zain grinned slightly at the prospect of fighting a strong fire mage at this point in time. Not many were available to him.
'If I can destroy this cage and deplete his mana reserves, it'll be my victory!' Vira saw a way to end this fight fast, and took it. She flew to the top of the cage and was about to strike at it, but got struck by the lightning spear Zain threw earlier. Her body went into shock for a second before she started falling.
'Didn't I dodge that already?!' Her body turned numb quickly, but before she regained her senses Zain was already upon her.
"Don't think I casted those two spells for nothing!" Vira was knocked back into the ground as Zain landed his attack. He fired off another lightning spear into a random direction before chasing after Vira.
Within her crater, Vira slowly opened her eyes before dodging at the last second from Zain's attack. After seeing her moment of weakness, Zain went fully on the offensive. Should Vira get her footing again she would have no problem just detonating this entire cage and depleting Zain of his magic in one go.
'Don't let up!' Zain shouted to himself while chasing Vira down. She tried to escape by dashing a great distance away, but Zain threw another lightning spear towards his Black Static spell, ricocheting the powerful attack in random directions before landing on her back yet again. As she slowly falls to the ground Zain prepared to land the final blow.
"Sol Linea!" But a blinding light ray shoots past his head, forcing him to dodge, lest he lose his head.
"Dammit!" With his momentum cut, and being forced to stop to avoid an attack, he gave Vira more than enough time to gather herself and create her counter attack. The brilliant flames formed from nothing before covering the inside of the cage the two were in. As the embers made contact with the crackling lighting, chain explosions rang out. Zain's eyes widened in fear as the oncoming danger.
The center of the arena suffered the most damage it had today as an explosion rang out, shaking the entire arena and everyone within it. The ground tore apart as black plumes of smoke blotted out the sun in the sky. From within the soot covered arena, many could see Zain's spell start to crumble away. Without it's caster the spell simply vanished. The crowd waited with baited breath, wondering who could come out such an explosion alive. The smoke began to clear, and it showed brilliant orange hair flowing in the wind.
Vira stood tall as she held onto her side, nursing the pain coursing through her body the best she could. She breathed ragged breaths while looking at her surroundings and finding the cage she was once in completely gone. A sigh of relief left her as she turned around and looked towards the miniature sun in the sky.
"I hardly made it out of there…that explosion was more powerful than I thought it'd be…" Slowly she limped away from the thick smoke cloud, but from the shadows, Zain leapt at her with bloodlust in his eyes. In fear, Vira quickly turned around at his sudden appearance.
'What?! How is he still able to move?! He shouldn't be able to after taking an explosion of that magnitude, he was at the center of it!' Confusion overwrote her thinking as she instinctively aimed for Zain's attack. The two neared one another as the final clash was about to happen, but Zain's attack completely veered off course as his hand landed in the ground in front of the two. Runes spread from Zain's hands and covered the ground below the two as lightning crackled from below.
"Lightning Vortex!" From below, a torrent of lightning rose from the ground, electrocuting Vira who couldn't respond in time. The thunder echoed into the sky as her body collapsed to the ground. She was unconscious. With heavy breaths, Zain slowly stood to his feet and let the sweat run down his forehead.
"...I won." As those words were uttered from his mouth, the sun that hung above his head began glowing before turning into a bright white light. Suzaku emerged once again while beating his wings. Slowly his embers descended on the battleground and embraced all the fallen mages. The flames burned on their bodies as their wounds started healing at a rapid pace. Soon enough, everyone that was critically injured was healed on the spot.
"The fight is over." Suzaku's words carried a warmth to them, allowing everyone who was still tense about the fight to relax in an instant.
"So it's my loss." Vira spoke aloud as Zain turned towards her. Though even in defeat, she still held her smile. She turned to Zain before bowing slightly.
"Thank you for this fight. It will serve as a learning experience in my life." As a final gesture, Vira reached her hand out, expecting a handshake.
"...That should be my line." And Zain returned the gesture with a firm handshake. Vira smiled towards him, before gaining a confused look on her face.
"While I am mature enough to admit defeat, I am still curious as to how you survived that explosion. You were in the middle of it all, and not even the sturdiest of dearth mages would be able to tank an explosion like that."
"Oh, that? Just before it reached me, I made a new current of lightning for it to explode on. Once I was clear I released my two spells and focused everything I had on strengthening my defenses. The blast was diverted away from me directly, but I still got caught in it a bit."
"I see. You managed to do all of that in a matter of seconds. Your skill as a mage never ceases to amaze me." With a small laugh, Vira turns away and walks off.
"Congratulations to our new guardian." With those last words, Vira walked into the crowd.
With the battle royal now over, everyone left the destroyed arena as Zain faced down Suzaku. Their deity landed before Zain and spread its wings wide before covering the both of them in his divine flames. As Zain's vision was covered by the fire, he was forced to turn towards Suzaku.
"As I expected, you won. Congratulations are in order." Suzaku gave praise towards Zain who simply stared back at him. Taking his silence as a cue to continue on, Suzaku began speaking once again.
"Just as this long standing tradition has done many times before, young mage, I Suzaku, now offer you the contract to become my vessel."
An orange flame appeared before Zain, radiating a warmth that felt all too familiar to him.
"Simply thrust your hand into the fire, and say 'I accept', then you and I will merge and become one."
Zain looked deep into the fire before taking a deep breath. Countless thoughts raced in his mind, and before long his mind was made up. The words that came from his mouth decided everything.
"I refuse."